Do we spey them awl?

Or more accurately, awl the spey?

An acquaintance on a couple forums did this mod a while back to a 4 blade Rough Rider stockman, then a Rough Rider sowbelly.

Made me think at the time that I never use the spey on my Case ’47 pattern stockman, I could do it too.

Then I got this fancy ’18 recently, and had the same idea… Wasn’t sure if the thin blade would end up too weak, and flexy. Then I noticed it’s blades and the ’47s are the same stock thickness.. either way it’d be thin.

Thought I could try it on my older ’18, but if I’m going to be carrying one it’ll probably be the newer one for a while…

So I decided to heck with it, what the hell, why not. 😀

What the hell am I talking about?
Making an awl/punch out of the spey blade!

Before;

After;

The two knives for side by side comparison.

It was easy, and worked great! Not my smoothest bevel grind ever, but it’s hard for me to free hand a chisel grind– not used to the deeper angle. But it’ll work! (and does, I tried it!)

Turned out to be very stiff too, it’s thin stock but short and narrow, it has no flex like I was worried about. Should be fine.